provided for? the answer is because you damn didn't provide it. >> this is not simply a cover-up of a third-rate burglary. we have four of our diplomatic personnel dead, and it is not a mccarthy era tactic to demand accountability. what is clear is that this administration, including the president himself, has intentionally misinformed, read that lied, to the american people in the aftermath of this tragedy. >> ugly. four americans were killed in the aattack including u.s. ambassador chris stevens, two members of the cia. david petraeus appears at both hearings tomorrow morning. there were doubts his testimony would happen given his abrupt resignation, but petraeus reportedly volunteered to testify saying it's the right thing to do.

the "wall street journal" has an interesting look into petraeus's final days in the agency including reports of interagency finger points and rising tensions. kelly o'donnell is on the hill, and kelly, two months since the attack and finally top intel players are on the hill. frustration seemed to really be boiling over. what's going on? >> that public hearing that you showed some clips from really showed how politically charged this is. that is not where the secret briefings are taking place. that's a separate thing. it was a show place for the partisan divide over benghazi. when you talk to those on the intelligence committees in the house and senate, there's a sober approach to this as far as getting to the fact finding. david petraeus will be here tomorrow. he did voluntarily come to testify, meaning there's no subpoena involved. today they hear from the top intelligence folks from the cia, the fbi, the national intelligence office and they are learning some of the time line.

we are told they're getting a sense of what was known, and why did this whole controversy bubble up about a video, a spontaneous protest or an intentional act of terror, which is such a part of the political dynamic here. what we hear from members who were in the earlier briefing, the senate briefing is happening right now, is that there was a difference in the nature of the attacks. the first wave of the attack appeared more chaotic. the second attack went on over a period of seven hours appeared far more coordinated with command and control, the ability to bring weaponry, things like that, that cause some of this unease about how to decide who was behind it and what was going on. when you talk about frustrations, there are those political frustrations but also a lot of frustrations here about wanting to get to the bottom of it to know what happened, why chris stevens, the ambassador, his pleas for additional security, his warnings about dangers in the area may not have been addressed properly. they're trying to look at this

to try to put an end to what happened here, to understand it, and to provide for those who are in diplomatic posts in other dangerous parts of the world to make sure this kind of thing cannot happen again. >> so, kelly, this is steve kornacki. part of this story, then, involves the potential nomination of susan rice, the u.n. amambassador, to replace hillary clinton at the state democratic. it's susan rice who a lot of republicans have decided lied to the public. they allege was executing some kind of intentional cover-up plot by the administration. i don't know how that would work or what the cover-up would be. be that as it may, that's what republicans are saying. you have john mccain and lindsey graham both saying if her nomination is put forward, they will filibuster it. are there any indications that that would become an official republican party position, because if the republicans unite, they would have the 40 votes to kill it by filibuster. >> there is a lot of opposition among republicans to a potential

susan rice nomination. people are not actively talking about filibuster, although that's the obvious presumption if you talk about members trying to block something like this. in some was they are saying that she was schoezen bied white house to be the public face in the early days after the attack to talk about what happened. if she were to become secretary of state, she would need sort of a greater sense of recognizing that the story that was being put forward might not be accurate. they're sort of compelling her to have greater knowledge than what was given to her by the intelligence community. she has become a political focus here. whether they actually go forward with that or not is a matter to be decided later. what it has done in the moment is to bring greater focus to benghazi. that may be part of the strategy in talking about susan rice so publicly, to get the president involved and have him comment in the news conference to get democrats certainly wanting to talk about as well and putting a national spotlight on it, when there's a lot of frustration

here among both parties that the benghazi story and the incident there has not gotten sufficient attention over time. by making susan rice such a front and center personality in this, it has attracted more interest and more information and perhaps more action from the administration to provide answers. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell, thanks so much. >> good to be with you. >> for more on benghazi, we turn to nbc news terrorism analyst, evan coleman, senior partner for flash point global partners. thanks for being with us. we heard the public hearings today. tomorrow's hearings are closed. general petraeus is scheduled to testify. what do you think will be said in those hearings? >> unfortunately, i think it's a lot of politics. part of the problem here is that you have two inquiries going on right now. you have the congressional inquiry, which is a media circus, and a judicial inquiry going on inside the department of justice and fbi looking aat the people who actually carried out the attack in benghazi. what i'm concerned at is all

this media circus is taking away from what we need to do, hunting down the people that killed our ambassador and the individuals and bringing them to justice. the only justice these folks are going to see is maybe the wrong end, the business end of a hellfire missile. it's doubtful if they'll see a court of law. >> evan, if we can turn to the middle east, the situation this week is that israel has opened an attack on gaza because of continuing rocket fire from gaza into southern israel. this is an ongoing story. it goes back years. there was a big attack from israel four years ago. i guess my question is this. how much credibility does netanyahu, who sort of ordered this attack, have saying this is the last and only available recourse for israel when there wasn't much of an effort to engage egypt trying to act as a middle man or not much of a concerted effort to the netanyahu government's part to build up the palestinian authority in the west bank. was this really necessary at

this point for israel to act like this? >> the israelis were getting hit by quite a number of rockets, and it's within their judgment to defend themselves and take actions to defend themselves. there are facts here that make you wonder whether or not the israelis may have acted hastily? namely the fact that in addition to hamas there are other actors in the game here. a lot of people are al qaeda types firing the rockets. they consider themselves enemies of hamas. they are firing lots of rockets at israel, and israel is blaming those attacks on hamas because hamas is the regional power broker. i don't know if that's really going to progress ourselves forward. these kind of al qaeda splinter groups never stop firing rockets. hamas has no control over them. if there's a constant cycle where these groups fire a rocket to become a spoiler, israel retaliates and there's a clush of forces and nothing gets

resolved. it's hard to see where the progress is there. >> evan, let's broaden it out and see where progress could happen or be kept from happening, because this week a hamas commander was killed after an israeli assault, which followed a rocket attack from hamas. broader than that right now we have 30,000 israeli reservists called up just today. so that's like israel saying every man get your gun and come down here and fight. more than that, we have netanyahu is up for election in january. we have morsi with just basically still the new head of egypt. the muslim brotherhood does not like or respect israel at all. how do these other pieces, these leaders, new leader and leader facing election soon, factor into the whole situation? >> mercy is in a particularly vulnerable situation here. when mubarak was heading egypt, he could ignore the arab streak and the protests against israeli attacks in gaza. morsi can't do that. he's also the head of the muslim

brotherhood, and hamas is a branch of muslim brotherhood. this is a very complicating factor. i mean, we should say, though, that i think morsi or anyone else in egypt is looking to start a war with the israelis. they're going to have to much more cognizant of what's going on and responsive to, again, i think a sentiment aamong the arab is that the israeli actions are unjustified. as far as netanyahu is concerned and the upcoming election, look, he's playing to a domestic constituency. every time the israelis go into gaza, they do limited damage to hamas and other limited damage to other factions but they have done nothing permanent. we're back in a situation once again, the same situation time and time again over the past ten years, and again, it just seem -- where is the progress? what's being solved here? >> to make matters worse, israel has its plate full from egypt and those frayed relations to gaza and hamas.

let's add syria into the mix. israel fired shells into the syrian border after receiving some mortar fire itself in the golan heights. it doesn't have the time or energy to invest in syria, but if things spiral out of control, how much pressure does that also put on israel to act? >> i think the israelis have been pretty clear, including in the last few days, that they have absolutely no interest in getting involved in what's going on in syria. there's so many different reasons for that. first of all, it's an intractable conflict. beyond that, none of the actors involved are pro-israelis. the worst thing they can do is get involved in the conflict and give the regime some kinld of political cover saying we're not just fighting against revolutionaries but against israeli spies and the massad.

from israel's perspective they have nuch problems dealing with gaza. the last thing that they need is to add to that plate, and what can be gained by getting involved in syria from the israel's perspective? whoever wins in syria from israel's perspective is the enemy. >> that's right. thanks so much. >> thank you very much. >> up next, oh, mitt. why can't you just leave well enough alone? first we heard romney's honest thoughts on the 47%. now the audiotapes of his explanation of why he lost, and apparently it's because obama voters are just so greedy. we'll figure this out in "the spin." [ female announcer ] the power to become a better investor has gone mobile. with features like scanning a barcode to get detailed stock quotes to voice recognition. e-trade leads the way in wherever, whenever investing. download the ultimate in mobile investing apps, free, at e-trade. download the ultimate in mobile investing apps, free, an intense burning sensation i woke up with this horrible rash on my right side.

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. we are bang with mitt romney offering up on his take on why president obama won a re-election in a conference call with his biggest donors yesterday. >> his campaign focused on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote. >> so that would appear to undercut the spin we heard from the romney camp after his 47% comments. does it also show that mitt is kind of a sore loser? let's put that through the spin cycle. there's no question this is bad form for a defeated candidate. you're supposed to be a little humble in defeat and making excuses and blaming and all of that. there are so many directions to go with this, i think, though. one, it proves to me he spent the last month of the campaign after the 47% tape came out saying, no, no, no, i'll be the

president for 100%. disregard what you heard there. i think he clearly believed what he was saying in the 47%. i think this is good kwirmgts of that. the irony, of course, is to me is that mitt romney was trying the free gifts to important constituency strategy in this campaign? he told senior citizens that obama robbed them of medicare money and he would give them back the money that obama had robbed from them. it was a phantom issue. what he's saying is invented, but he was promising free stuff. let's not forget that. the bigger point is this philosophy, this 47% don't pay federal income taxes and we should be offended by that, this appoint that infected the party in the obama era. because the tea party and because the base and conservative sort of opinion shapers like hannity and limbaugh was so powerful, no leaders in the party were willing to stand up. romney says this yesterday, and we are hearing from bobby jindal, for instance, last night

saying this is trash. stay away from it. kelly ayotte said the same thing today. >> scott walker. >> some republicans are liberated by this defeat now. it's interesting to see how it broadens now. >> some are liberated by it, but some are focused on the free stuff need. it's disgusting and offensive, and it's why they use the word "pandering" when we talk about the groups that get entitlements rather than how liberals look at it in terms of protecting personal liberty and giving people that help the least fortunate among us. i don't want free stuff. i want people who are vulnerable to be protected by government. that's not looking for free stuff, and there's nothing wrong with that. as long as the gop keeps looking at it like that, they're going to keep losing national elections and losing this demographic trend that we have going on. chuck todd talked about it this morning in first read. when you think about it, romney's explanation for obama's viktvy laughable. the president won because he

successfully delivered to his voters. isn't that what politicians and presidents are supposed to do? absolutely. >> i thought he went on and on, by the way. it was much more than the clip we played. i thought perhaps the most shocking revelation i made is he thought he ran a superb campaign. just listening to those comments shows you he did not run a superb campaign. he was going on and on about the different gifts the obama administration had given to different couldn't constituents. he said quote, free contraceptives were big with young college-aged women. it struck me, because they said the democrats are reducing women to abortion and birth control. women are much more than that. apparently in the analysis after the fact, mitt romney believes that women just voted because obama was going to give them free birth control. they should have just sent out condoms and birth control. much more effective.

>> obama is doing good giving out phones. >> look, whatever you think of the substance of this, and i will say that there's a little truth in here in that democrats did not promise free stuff, and that i don't think that's why people voted for obama. people voted for obama because they liked him, and they believed that his policies are going to work in a second term. democrats certainly did threaten that republicans were going to take a lot of their stuff away. so you could find some truth in there, but i will say never a good idea to blame the electorate. never a good idea to say, you didn't vote for me, and it's your fault for not seeing my greatness. it's just not a good idea. and if the gop needed an easy excuse to back aaway from romney, distance themselves, start anew and move forward, romney just gave it to them. in that sense he did them something of a gift. that bobby jindal and scott walk r and even kelly ayotte from new

hampshire of all places can come out and feel comfortable a week or so after the election dispar rajjing romney's comments i think maybe was the kind of cover and restart button that they were looking for. >> you talk about new hampshire, iowa, wisconsin. there are not people looking for free stuff in those states, and obama won all states. >> on the substance, there's no point to it. it underscored the demographic challenge the republicans face competitive long term. you can't talk in boldly divisive terms like romney did in that tape and call. yes, i think it is an encouraging sign for republicans that people say this, but there's another story i want to mention. this is the kind of stuff republicans have to get away from. there's the state party chairman in maine. this wasn't a competitive state that went public and went to the press in his state saying there are hundreds of black people that turned out to strovote in state. white people said they never saw black people in our town and

turned out. there's an implication that obama shipped in black people by the dozens in a state obama was going to win from 15 points. stay away from this stuff. >> i will take issue, toure, with something you said that talking about democrats reaching out to the least fortunate and the most vulnerable. i don't think that's what romney is talking about, and i think, you know, a little uncomfortable to classify women and minorities as vulnerable and least fortunate. i think he's talking about broad groups and not just the poor or the im pov riched. he's talking about big demographic groups you would not classify as vulnerable or weak. >> when liberals want to protect personal liblt, and that's what liberals are all about. when you talk about women having the right to make their own choices with their body, that's protecting personal liberty. we're talking about affirmative action. >> i don't think we need to classify them as weak. women aren't weak because they -- >> i didn't -- i certainly never

said anything about women being weak. >> the bigger point to what steve was saying, is the republican party has to break out of this druj rush limbaugh cocoon. this is what romney mnmitt romn almost verbatim what rush limbaugh said about obama being santa claus and bill o'reilly said the same thing. >> it's not a productive conversation. >> i would say that was one of the major downfalls of his campaign and republican party in this election cycle, is they were not in touch with reality. it is an encouraging sign that people like bobby jindal are signalling, we'd like to be in touch with reality now. thank you very much. >> it just didn't work. it's not productive. >> the weak, vulnerable, unfortunate, that conversation underscores one of the biggest issues facing america now and going forward. that's the growing income gap. that's why today the issue is inequality, and we've got one of our favorites, sister similar money campbell here to talk

about it. that is next on "the cycle." i always wait until the last minute. can i still ship a gift in time for christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery.

on the eve of the president's white house meeting with congressional leaders about the fiscal cliff or gentle slope, one of the biggest sticking points reap mains tax rates for the wealthy. republicans' latest offer is to close tax loopholes to pay for extending bush era tax cuts including for all including the rich. president obama says the top 2% simply don't need the help, and some of the most charitable folks around agree. the self-described nuns on the bus returned from a trip around denver explaining why it's time to end tax cuts for the top 2%. it's the latest social justice for network, a progress sich catholic organization. sister similar money, campbell the executive director says president obama's plan to increase taxes on those making $250,000 or month could fill in the widening wealth gap in

america. she argues it's one of the biggest issues facing the country. today the issue is inequality. in the guest spot we welcome back sister simone campbell. how does raising taxes on the wealthy, as i think congress and the president should do, relate to social justice and inequality? >> first of all, what you need to know is that the wealthy would continue to have the tax breaks on the first $250,000 of their income. so everybody would keep a tax break. it would be just on income above $250,000. this is so important because the programs that we call safety net programs serve often the working poor like billy and his wife and two kids that we met in milwaukee on the first bus trip. billy worked full time at minimum wage, but because minimum wage still keeps you in poverty, he only has enough money to use his entire salary to keep a roof over his family's

head. he uses food stamps and st. benedict's dining room to feed his family. what i realized is that these safety net programs, while they're -- i think governor romney would call them a handout or charity to billy, also benefit his employer because his employer has -- can pay low wages and have a fed employee and it benefits us, the consumers, because it keeps costs down. these are not just handouts to billy. this is a whole system we've created of protecting folks who are the working poor in our economy. we need to protect that. >> you know, when we talk about the relationship between income tax rates and inequality, i'm struck by the golden age in this this country. under eisenhower it was 90%, from kennedy through the carter years it was 70%. reagan got it down to 28%, and right now the debate is should

we go up to 36% on to 36.9%. sister, my question is if we're talking about you using the tax code to address the equality, we're not having the debate nooe we need to have. this is a higher and more progressive attack system. could it get on the agenda realistically? >> well, i think we're taking steps towards that. when you do the analysis of what's going on in our society, you're absolutely right. we need to address all of the factors that create this huge wealth disparity, but a key one, a first step towards this shall we call it a downpayment even is letting some of the bush era tax cuts expire. that i think is a significant step forward. we have to look at the tax code and look at housing. we have to look at savings and a whole bunch of other issues, but that's a first step towards making what is a very substantive conversation. >> sister, i think everyone can agree we'd like to decrease poverty and even though

conservatives have been maligned for wanting to quote-unquote cut social safety programs and the social safety net, expanding welfare hasn't reduced poverty. in fact, adding millions to the rar ranks of welfare has seen poverty explode over the past four years. what's the balanced response mere? . >> excuse me, that data is wrong. >> poverty has not explode snd. >> no, poverty has incomed but welfare has not. the real culprit here is minimum wage. minimum wage has stayed below the poverty level, and what we have to be keenly aware of is in 1970 if you worked for minimum wage it kept you out of poverty. so if we were going to go back to a wage that would keep families out of poverty, minimum wage would have to be about $12.50 an hour instead of its current 7.25. so let's talk about the working poor. people don't realize a big

percentage of the people in poverty are the folks who are working. >> more people are on government assistance now than ever before. one in six. >> no, no. okay. what you have to look at is what does that mean? those are very nice sound bites. >> no, they're terrible sound bites, sister. they are terrible. >> they are terrible, but they're erroneous. when you look at who is getting -- the recipients of social security paid into an insurance for a long time. i'm still paying into social security, so when i get it i hope you don't call me a loafer. >> i didn't call dmin a loafer. >> the second piece is the disabled. some folks in our society can't work, and we acknowledge that we support those folks. finally, food stamps has been the lifeline for the working poor, because working poor people in our country do not earn enough to keep both a roof over their head and food on the table. a whole bunch of poor people that i've met on the bus don't have cars to live in.

so i think we have to be responsible as a nation na we have chosen not to raise minimum wage. we've chosen rather to have food stamps as way to let people eat. i'm sorry, but i believe, as a catholic, as a christian, that everyone has a right to eat and the government is to take care of. because we haven't raised minimum wage. raise minimum wage, and then we'll deal with it. that would take care of it. >> when i think back to the civil rights movement, which was a religious movement rather than a p political movement. i wonder if you think that's what's required to really fight poverty. people like yourself, religious leaders making it a moral and religious cause. it's not going to come from the political realm. it will come from people like yourself making it a religious, moral cause to end poverty. >> absolutely. that's what nuns on the bus is about. trying to lift up the truth of people at the margins of society, not the comments about the 47%, not the comments about the lazy, not the comments about

so many people getting government assistance. the real issue here is hard-working people should be able to support their families. if we can't support their families under salaries, then we as a nation stand with them, because employers benefit, consumers benefit, and we the people of the united states need to solve this problem. it's a big issue. >> sister, i think you hit on raising the minimum wage, something i'd certainly support. i think one of the questions, too, is how do we continue and move forward with more answers of how to address poverty? there is truth to the fact we have these safety net programs that have been vital for millions of americans, but they haven't ended poverty in the way that we'd like. what are some of the most innovative and interesting approaches that you've heard about that we should be having a conversation about? >> great question. i'm grateful for it. what we're doing at network is launching a campaign in january called mend the gaps ways forward. some is tax reform and some is

minimum wage. additionally there are things like helping folks get secure housing, and how do we manage low-cost housing for folks working within the poverty level and then gradually moving that then out. we also heard about a fabulous program in denver on tuesday that is helping sbrentrepreneur develop small businesses out of the low income communities and making significant strides forward with small business loans. this is making a really big difference in denver. there's a lot of innovation out there, but it's getting past the sound bites and really buckling down to solve this tough problem. >> all right. >> so stay tuned. >> that sounds great. we'll have you back on to talk about that. thank you p for your time. >> you're well. this afternoon the president was back in the new york area surveying the damage from sfr storm sandy. coming up, the people affected, the growing price tag and, of course, the politics. [ female announcer ] today, jason is here

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right now president obama she hadding back to the white house after touring portions of new york that were hardest-hit by superstorm standee nearly three weeks ago. more than 100 deaths are blamed, and millions lost power with tens of thousands still in the dark. the president met with first responders and families this afternoon flanked by new york governor andrew cuomo, the state's two senators and his secretaries of housing and homeland security. >> people still need emergency help. they still need heat. they still need power. they still need food. they still need shelters. kids are still trying to figure

out where they're going to go to school. so there's a lot of short-term immediate stuff that has to be dealt with, and we are going to make sure that we stay here as long as people need that immediate help. that's fema's primary task. >> also on hand this time around was new york city mayor bloomberg who didn't give the president a photo-op last time in town but gave him a post-storm re-election endorsement citing obama's position on climate charge. just yesterday he admitted the administration hasn't done enough in the first term when it comes to climate change, but he says the white house wanted to lead a national conversation on the issue during the next four years. with the fiscal cliff and calls for immigration reform, is now the time to tackle climate change? if not now, when we start the conversation? there's always time to talk about it in the backspin. what do you think? >> i'm at optimistic person in

general and optimistic for the president's second term. i think we'll see a grand bargain type of deal and see renewed focus on infrastructure and jobs. very hopeful about immigration reform. the one issue that i'm very pessimistic about is climate change. it was basically dead on arrival, cap and trade was so demonized in the first term. i think when the economy is still tough, it's hard to see beyond anything but the immediate pain. isasmuch as the as much as these storms are renewed attention, it's hard to see how anything real happens in this term. >> that fear is clearly very much on the white house's mind. at the press conference yesterday, obama framed and asked what to do on climate change in the second time. he framed it as a binary choice as you can address the economy or climate change. if it's a choice between the two, it's no choice to me. i go with the economy. the bottom line is his administration has imposed new emission standards.

for several reasons we're in line to be complianted with the emission reduction standard for 2020. that's the good news. after 2020 the standards for reductions really kind of multiply. if you want to be in compliance with them, if we want to solve this problem, we need to be doing it right now. we need to take action right now. yeah, i think bloomberg, if he thought endorsing obama was going to make this the centerpiece the second term, he got snookered. >> jay carney told reporters we would never propose a carbon tax. this is where they are. >> we have to start with education. i can't believe we're arguing about is this really. is this man made? i don't understand that. hurricane sandy is more like the new normal. you talk about 1 in 100 year storm. that's not the next 100 years. we may see one that year or the year after that. sandy was a category 1 really. a category 3 could change manhattan. locally we might have to think p

about storm surge barriers that cost billions of dollars. they have to be several feet high. holland does this very well. people in new orleans might be laughing like you think that's going to make the difference? you leave that up to the government to do? we have to consider something, because we can't just sit here because bigger storms will come more often, and we have to deal with that. >> putting my thoughts on the politics of climate change aside, you will all be happy to know i agree with each of you in some way. i think -- >> my head just exploded. >> it's really uncomfortable. what did i say wrong? >> i think you're right that the best advocates for this issue would be the people most immediately affected. so the victims of the storm. and rightly they are more focused on getting their homes back than they are on issues of climate change and politics. i also agree there's very little democratic will for this right now. the president i don't think wants to waste capital on

climate change right now when he knows he has to address some bigger issues. that said, i don't think republicans want to deal with this as much either. then to your point, toure, i think this should raise some infrastructure questions, and mayor bloomberg got a little criticism after sandy for some infrastructure flaws that were exposed in this storm. i think most people assuming that the 12 years at the helm, three terms, there's some of this stuff you might have focused on ahead of big gulps and bike lanes. there's room for criticism all around here, and again, i'm also not optimistic. up next, hot off the presses from america's finest news source. the onion is out with an encyclopedia of all wordily facts. god, sex and congress explained as only "the onion" folks could.

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♪ yeah, we're going to let it breathe. oh, i love it. did you know that president jar gerald ford was the most prominent member of the town. i learned that in the "the

onion" book of knowledge. i learned that cinder changed to kareem abdul-jabbar after the milwaukee bucks imposed islamic law. the bee gees popularity declined because of the poor handling the iranian hostage crisis. thorough good marshall would have quit law school if he knew he'd inspire clarence thomas, and the constitution of the united states needs no updating because the founders gave us introductions on gay marriage, internet regulations. that's true. the ononbook of known knowledge is the last book you'll ever neen. to find out why let's bring in editor and author of this new smarts bible. con fwrat lagss to you, sir. excellent book. >> thank you very much. thank you for having me. >> i think sometimes fake facts are actually more valuable than

real facts at getting at the deeper truths in life. do you think that's true? clearly as an onion guy, you must think it's true. >> toure loves fake facts. >> you heard it here first. >> anything from "the onion" is more important than any information you'd find anywhere else because it comes from us. if that answers your question, yes, absolutely. anything we say is valuable. >> we at "the cycle"le feel the same way, anything we say is valuable. zoo >> you know, i love "the onion" for the way it skewers the media. in one of the your sfwris you defined "the new york times." daily newsletter of the american association of repired personed. founded in 1851 it's an indispensable source of information for aarp members for persons 55 and older as well as news and views from columnists such as frank rich, maureen dowd who provide an elder perspective of issues of day.

it helps seniors explore the world with a travel section with ample disposable income and a food section with interesting and safety dining excursions in manhattan. as a fake news outlet, i have to imagine it's part of your daily job to affirm, you know, how terrible the real media actually is. >> yes, absolutely. i think it's part of our job to kind of lord our power over you because, as you know, we are the most powerful media organization in the world. we have annual earnings of over $300 billion. i could cut all of your mikes at any moment if i wanted to. >> prove it. >> yeah, prove it. >> i think it's fun, it's enjoyable for us to kind of wield that power and make you all feel small, which you are. >> fair enough. that's fair enough. my favorite was a very random one. i liked this entry on elk, a species of deer that taught it just heard someone say it's name. there it is.

>> definitive. roger simon in politico wrote what was supposed to be satire but it was taken as truth by a lot of outlets about paul ryan marching around his campaign bus calling mitt romney the stench saying, tell stench i'm having finger stand witches with peggy noonan and will text him later. have you had stories like that where people actually took it seriously and it got spread around as if it was real news? >> oh, to an astonishing degree that happens. really almost every day something like that happens. maybe not on that large of a scale, but, yeah, a local newspaper, you know, there will be 100 facebook comments under one of our stories from people who think it's real. >> the state government media of iran. >> exactly. the government of iran for god's sake. it just happens a lot. so at this point it doesn't really faze us. it's just sort of like throw another one on the pile. >> my favorite one in this book was about james polk, one of our

former presidents. it creates randomly this story about how nobody believed james polk had been elected president. secret service would routinely escort him out of the white house. will, do you have a favorite entry from this book, one that really stands out? >> well, i don't know if i have a favorite. there's one that's very succinct and i feel is very good advice for anyone who is trying to make their way through life. it's kitchen comma, if another rom contains more knives than this room, get out of that house. i think it's good advice. >> great rule for life. >> excellent advice. will tracy, thank you for not kiting our mikes. >> thank you for having me here. up next, krystal has friendly words of advice for our friends in the gop which includes an elephant with a sombrero. sounds awesome. >> ole. [ female announcer ] the humana walmart-preferred rx plan p-d-p

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zeebox would be a stretch limo. with this enchanting union, comes a sunroof she can scream from... i'm goin' to prom! [ male announcer ] ...and a driver named bruce that she can re-name james... faster, james! [ male announcer ] ...just 'cause. download zeebox free, and have the night of your life with your tv. the republican party is in crisis. what can they possibly do to fix their demographics problem? 36-point gap along single women, 40-point gap along latinos and more than 90-point gap along african-americans and 24% gap among young people. in other words, major problems with every group that is increasing in size. after careful thought and reflection, i've got a few bits of wiss come. first, let's talk about your lady problems. >> what would you call someone of who wants us to pay for her to have sex? what would you call that woman?

you'd call them a slut, prostitute. >> lesson number one, if you want single women to vote for you, maybe stop calling them a bunch of ho bags. now, look, i know rush limbaugh doesn't speak for everyone, not all republicans think all single women using birth controls are prostitutes but when mitt romney can only munser the courage to say about rush, that's not the language i would have used, that doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence. next up, young people. >> we live in an opportunity society. you don't sit on your butt and have it dumped in your lap. >> president obama once said he wants everybody in america to go to college. what a snob. >> lesson number two, something tells me that young people worgeing hard to earn a college degree and make taking on student debt to do so aren't going to be won over by a message of you're a bunch of lazy snobs. to be fair i haven't seen the polling on this, i'm just going

with my gut on this one. finally, let's delve into the gop's problem with african-americans and latinos. >> the demographics are changing. it's not a traditional america anymore, and there are 50% of the voting public who want stuff. they want things. >> what the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressive to turn them out to vote. >> lesson number three, well, you know, i guess you guys have it right here. minorities just voted for obama because they wanted free stuff. you know. stuff like access to health care, working economy, and a decent education for their kids. old santa claus obama, he delivers all the goodies. what a bunch of lazy moochers. the gop could never convince them to take personal responsibility for care for their lives. look, the republican party desperately needs to move back to the center to find a place of balance and nuance in their

policies on immigration, health care, and taxes among others. but before that it seems to me the first order of business is to stop insulting most of the country. one gop latino operative complaining about gop outreach to lahtinos told politico, they just want to put a sombrero on the republican elephant. that's probably not going to work. before we worry about sombreros or skirts for the elephant for that matter, let's get the elephant to stop calling us s lu.. ts, moochers and grifters. and you got that advice for free just by watching me. i could have saved you guy that is $100 million you sent to cal rove. that does it for "the cycle." martin, it's all yours. >> crystal ball, skirts and sombreros for stupid people. it's thursday, november the 15th, and you are about to enter the twilight zone. >> we thought we had a very good chance of winning. >> what the